


My Savior

by ArraFrost



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, M/M, spoilers for the avengers movie!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-24
Updated: 2012-07-24
Packaged: 2017-11-10 15:41:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/467930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArraFrost/pseuds/ArraFrost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain America saves the city from the bomb instead of Iron Man at the end of the movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Savior

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as a prompt on tumblr.

“ _Stark! You hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city.”_  Director Fury's voice boomed over the sound of metal hitting metal from the beat-down he was receiving on the street. They were overwhelming them, they were out numbered and this news was not making Tony's day any better.

“How long?” Tony asked, taking a hit to the shoulders and falling back to the ground. He was out of breath and Iron Man was running out of energy.

“ _Three minutes. Max.”_

“Argh!” Tony struggled as one of the spears penetrated a weakened spot on the armor, penetrating the skin of his leg and hitting bone. “Fuck!” He kicked the chitauri off of him with his other leg. The kick was greeted with a blast from one of the spears and Tony felt the surge of electricity as something short-circuited.

“Jarvis, put everything we've got into the thrusters.”

“ _Sir, the last blow has disabled the thrusters. I am not able to divert the remaining power.”_

Glancing up, Tony noticed the spear coming down on his chest a little too late. “Flares!”

The flares deployed in time to divert the spear from his chest to his arm and thankfully it didn't sink through his armor this time. The chitauri stumbled away from him, growling as limped over to a safer distance.

“ _Stark? Can you do this.”_

Tony breathed heavily, searching desperately in his mind for a solution. Filtering through the math to figure how much he would have to alter, what he would be able to reroute in less than three minutes.

“ _I'll do it.”_

“Cap?” Tony looked up as though Steve had magically appeared in front of him but it was only his voice over the com.

“ _Iron Man are you grounded?”_ If the Captain's voice hadn't been so concerned and serious, Tony would have sneered at the implications of that sentence. Instead he sighed and nodded his head ignoring the pain from his leg as he sent the last of his missiles from his shoulder compartment to thin out the crowd.

“Yeah... But so are you, Captain. How do you expect to-”

“ _I'll find a way.”_

“What do you mean you'll find a way?” Tony, now hidden inside a building from the swarms of chitauri, planted himself against the wall, whispering but not in a hushed voice.

“ _If Black Widow can make it to the top of your ugly building, I can make it to that missile.”_

Tony started a retort in his head but he was cut off by the sounds coming from Captain America's line. Grunts, groans, scraping, the sounds of the chitauri growling and the distinct sound their aircrafts made.

“Cap you're not on one of those things are you?”

Tony received no answer as the sound of the shield resonating against what he could only assume as the back of a chitauri's head.

“ _Okay... I think I got this- Woah!”_

Tony cursed as he realized what Steve was doing. The man was crazy, he was a hero, and this wasn't going to end well. He had to think quickly because he knew there was nothing he could say to talk him out of doing this.

“Cap, describe the controls. What does it look like?”

“ _Uh...”_

Tony listened diligently to Steve's less than technical and vague descriptions of the equipment that he was dealing with, trying to make sense of it quickly to keep from falling off the machine and dodging the attacks of other aircrafts. Tony pieced it together as he punched away the few chitauri that discovered his location. Swiftly, and in detail that Steve would be able to understand, Tony instructed Steve on what he believed to be the proper controls of the aerial device.

“ _Okay... okay I think I've got it...”_ The Captain was hesitant but from the sounds in the background it appeared as though he was flying steadier. Suddenly his voice became stiff and his breathing leveled out to that of the professional soldier.  _“I see the missile.”_

“ _I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down.”_ Natasha unexpectedly came on the com, interrupting whatever heavy pressure Tony was feeling against his chest.

“ _Don't do it. We've got two minutes until this nuke explodes. I know exactly where I'm sending it.”_

Tony felt the sentence and its implications down to the pit of his stomach.

“ _Cap, you're not coming back from that. You can't survive on the other side.”_ Natasha's concern was clear over the amount of struggling she was going to be able to close the portal.

“ _I know... but it has to be done.”_

“That should be my job.” Tony spoke without thinking, his heart miles ahead of his mind. “That should be me up there, Cap.”

“ _But it's not, Stark.”_ Steve sounded mournful yet strangely satisfied.

“You can't do what I could do! You're... you're just a man! At least with the Iron Man suit I'd be able to cross into space.”

“ _I'm not just a man, Stark. I'm Captain America. Isn't this what I do?”_

“You've already sacrificed yourself once you don't have to do it again! I'm the one that needs to prove myself, not you!” Tony growled, his ego clambering over emotions as he struggled with how to express himself.

“ _Sorry, Tony. Next time I know you'll prove me wrong.”_

“I don't want there to be a next time. This is my chance and you're taking it. So come down from there and we'll all leave here failures.”

“ _Almost there, Tony. No turning back now.”_

Tony took a breath as he glanced out from under the shelter of the broken building. A chill ran down his spine as he watched his hero struggling in the air. Steve had, somehow during their conversation jumped from the aircraft to steady himself on the missile, pulling on it's nose to gradually make it point higher into the sky.

Limping out from his cover, Tony felt like the world was crumbling down around him. Everything that Tony had been suppressing since he'd first met the frozen soldier who he grew up admiring; The fact that everything about Steve lived up to his expectations and the anger he felt when he saw his father reflected in the Captain's eyes; All the touches and glances that Tony had denied himself, all flooded his senses as he stared helplessly skyward.

“Steve... don't do this...” The emotions Tony was holding back spilled quietly into his voice and Tony could swear he saw Captain America's shoulders tense and his head jerk ever so slightly with the desire to look down.

“ _I have to...”_ The speed of the wind around the missiles was making it harder to hear him but Tony could hear the regret and longing in his voice.

“Let go, Steve. Please...”

“ _Damn...”_ Cap's gentle curse fell sweetly off his lips and Tony felt his heart clench.  _“Was hoping I wouldn't have to relive this...”_

That took Tony off guard, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “Relive what?”

“ _Saying goodbye to someone I love.”_

Tony nearly choked on the sob that found its way into his throat. “Steve, you're not doing this. I can figure out some way to put more power into the-” Tony's eyes widened as something sank deep into his skull and he brought his eyes back to ground level with purpose.

“ _Tony... thanks.”_

Not pausing in his limping movements out into the battlefield, Tony blinked away the emotions he'd allowed to sneak through his defenses. “For what?”

“ _Feeling the same.”_

“Oh no, Cap. See. I don't feel the same way.” Tony was inches away from his destination, determination coloring his eyes. “My feelings are a hellova lot stronger. Thor. Lightning. Hit me.”

“ _Tony?”_

The deity gave him a quizzical look but did not argue with Tony's commanding tone and unleashed a wave of electricity through the Iron Man armor. Tony cried out, the pain of the lightning causing significant damage to his broken and beaten body, much more than it had in the forest.

“ _Tony what happened?”_  His voice was getting weaker and sounded like he was moments from passing out.

“ _Power at two hundred percent.”_ Jarvis informed the now smirking Tony as he shut his eyelids against the broken blood vessels he would deal with later. Right now there were more pressing matters like the missile seconds away from a portal into space.

“Let go. Do it now.”

“ _Tony I have to-”_

“Steve Rogers you will let go of that missile or I swear I will blast you off of it!” He could hear the laughter in Steve breath before he put every bit of energy into the thrusters. Conviction coursed through Tony's blood as he moved faster than he thought possible in pursuit of the missile, even as he watched it disappear into the portal. “Natasha, close it.”

“ _Tony, what about-”_

“Close it!”

She didn't waste any more time from the looks of the fancy broken light show coming from the top of his own tower, but that didn't distract Tony from the sinking feeling in his chest.

“You realize you ruined my mournful goodbye right?” Steve glanced up from Iron Man's arms, eyes and voice exhausted but smiling up at the man who had caught him from a dangerous free fall.

“Sorry Cap, couldn't let you steal my thunder.” Tony smirked as he lowered them onto a stable roof, ignoring the chitauri as they began to fall lifeless to the ground like flies around them. Lowering Steve to the flat surface of the roof, Tony removed his Iron Man helmet, needing to see him with his own eyes and not through the multiple screens flashing red inside the helmet.

Steve smiled softly, eyes half lidded but determined to stay focused on Tony's face. “Thanks, Tony...”

Their eyes were locked, exposing all the unspoken words between them that could wait until later to discuss verbally. Instead, Tony's lip quirked playfully as he took Steve's hand into his own armored hand. “Just leave the stupid stunts to me next time.”

A chuckle escaped Steve's lips as he let his head rest back on the concrete, battling the notion of passing out. “Deal.”


End file.
